Faizel Patel – 01/03/2021
Human rights organisations including leading world figures have condemned Israel for sending coronavirus vaccines to other countries while ignoring Palestinians.
Israel’s Kan Public Broadcasting reported that 100,000 Moderna vaccines will be shipped to 15 allies, as well as several countries in Africa that have strong or growing ties with Israel.
The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) foreign affairs minister Riyad al-Malki described Israel’s decision as a form of “political blackmail and an immoral measure”.
Speaking to Radio Islam during the Palestine Report on Monday, the Palestine Information Networks (PIN) Hafez Ebrahim Moosa says prominent voices have spoken out against Israel’s decision.
“You’ve got Bernie Sanders calling Israel out. The country director of Oxfam in the occupied Palestinian territories Dina Jibril, she said that Israel’s deal to exchange surplus vaccines for UN votes and embassies while the vast majority of almost five million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza are left to wait for the potentially life-saving vaccine is shameful and short sighted.”
Hafez Moosa says while Israel has allowed miniscule amounts of COVID-19 vaccines to enter occupied territories, the vaccines are not even from Israel, but from other countries.
“Israel is saying it’s not its responsibility to vaccinate populations in the West Bank and Gaza. But human rights organisations say it’s absolutely Israel’s responsibility as under the Geneva Convention Israel is considered the occupying power.”
Hafez Moosa also shared updates about an Israeli court extending the solitary confinement of Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement and Israel flooding Gaza’s agricultural land.
Listen to the Palestine Report with Hafez Ebrahim Moosa.
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